A 14-year-old boy out for a walk with his older brother was killed in Richmond yesterday when two gunmen ambushed the pair.

Johnny Jones of Richmond is the fourth teenager to die by gunfire in the city in the last three weeks in what police are calling a sporadic spike in youth violence.

Police responding to reports of gunshots at 12:30 p.m. in the 1700 block of Potrero Avenue found Jones lying on the sidewalk. He had been shot many times, including in the head.

Moments later they found Jones' 16-year-old brother, Augustus, about a block and half away, on the ground at the corner of 19th Street and Potrero Avenue. The older brother was shot in the arm, the foot and the back.

Both boys were taken to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek, where the younger brother was pronounced dead and the older brother is recovering from his wounds.

"One person got out of the car and shot them both, then they drove off," he said.

Johnny fell to the ground immediately, and Augustus ran for a block and a half before he fell to the ground.

The three other shootings -- one was on the borderline with San Pablo -- happened in other areas of town and don't seem to have any connection with yesterday's crime, Brown said.

On Thursday, a 15-year-old Kennedy High School student was shot in the back of the head just hours after he left school for Christmas break.

Tamarlo Johnson was shot while riding in the back seat of a station wagon as it turned onto South 26th Street off Cutting Boulevard to head into the Easter Hill housing project. He was on life support at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek until Friday.

Five days before that, 18-year-old Clifford "Buddy" Jones was shot more than a dozen times on a walkway inside the Crescent Park Apartments on Hartnett Avenue. A witness said she had seen the shooter follow Jones into the complex from a nearby store.

And on Dec. 7, Richmond High School junior Lamar Preston was shot in the neck by someone in a passing car as he stood across the street from his school during a lunch break. Lamar, 16, ran across the street and died in the principal's office while a crowd of students gathered around.

None of the crimes has been solved.

Police are asking anyone with information about yesterday's shooting of the brothers to please call Detective Anthony Mikell at (510) 620-6615.